Page 10

Barbara

I knew I had to ignore my bodyguard to stay sane, but it was hard. He trailed after me, so close, I felt phantom caresses on my back and nape even though he didn’t actually touch me. It was the air he stirred with his movements brushing against my skin and making me tingle. I was hyper-aware of him at every moment.

The reading room was almost empty, which didn’t help the matters. Walking among the high bookshelves, it felt at times like we were alone, and my heart kept racing uncomfortably. I was ridiculously nervous, my palms sweating.

“Here,” I sighed with relief, spotting the book.

It was the only comprehensive study of mind-manipulating species, and the library had one copy, which couldn’t be borrowed. The only way to access it was by reading it right here. It was out of print, too, so I couldn’t buy it.

I took it off the shelf, glancing at the faded lettering of the title. Mind Manipulation: Risks and Opportunities.

“Is that what we’re here for?” Phantom asked quietly, his face right by my ear.

I jumped, startled by his proximity. Heat slid down my nape, followed by a wave of gooseflesh.

“Yes. It’s the only copy they have.”

Before I could react, he pulled the book out of my hands. “Awesome! Since my assistant hasn’t completed his report yet, I’ll read this to get ready. Great job finding this, doll.”

“What?!” I exclaimed in indignation. Someone in the next aisle shushed me aggressively.

“This is mine! Give it back!” I whispered as loudly as I could.

Phantom raised his arm high, holding the book out of my reach.

“Come and get it, shorty.”

I stared at him, struck completely dumb by his audacity. I wasn’t even that short, but that was beyond the point. I had no idea how to react.

In all my life, no one had ever treated me this way. I was at a loss. Was I supposed to try to jump and take the book from him? That would be ridiculous. We weren’t children, for God’s sake.

“Give it back. It’s my book,” I demanded, keeping my voice low.

He made a show of opening it, still out of my reach, and showed me the front page. “It says it’s the property of this library. Wanna get it? Climb me.”

The absolute, goddamn, ridiculous… asshole. There, I said it. Well, thought it. Same thing.

“What is wrong with you?” I asked, my anger burning so hot, it shocked me.

I was about to lose my shit, and it was thrilling and terrifying all at once. I was always in control. Always! But Phantom had worn me down all morning, and I was out of resources.

“I like having fun. This is fun,” he said, his skeletal face grinning obnoxiously. “And I really should read this book, doll. You want me to catch him, don’t you?”

“I need it more!” I hissed, stomping my foot. “Give it back! I saw it first!”

“Get it, then.” He cackled, waving the book tauntingly above his head.

Well, I had enough. Not even sure what I was about to do, I pushed into his personal bubble until our bodies were flush, his widely planted feet bracketing mine. I grabbed his face in both hands and tugged it down until my nose almost touched the hole where his would be.

He gasped, and I dug my fingers into the sides of his head, shocked by how warm it was to the touch. It wasn’t like his body, armored and cold. This was like touching a living, breathing person, albeit a bony one.

I stared vehemently into the depths of his eye sockets. There was a faint glow there, something silvery that suddenly flared brighter. I squeezed his face with all my might, breathing hard as waves of heat and cold rushed down my back. My anger burst and shifted, becoming something else, equally intense.

“Give. Me. My. Book.”

“What book?” he asked, the faintest tremor in his voice.

I grunted with annoyance. “The book in your hand! Give it to me. Right now!”

Something fell with a muffled thud. I stared into Phantom’s silver eyes that glowed in the depths of his sockets like wills-o’-the-wisp, taunting and mesmerizing. It hit me, then. His eyes glowed, just like my would-be-killer’s, and it seemed like a strange sort of irony.

“I’m afraid I dropped it,” he whispered hoarsely, his throat clicking as if it was completely dry. “You’re so pink, doll. Why are you so pink?”

I swallowed. My throat was dry, too, and I didn’t know why. I only knew our faces were so close, I smelled his breath, dark with a hint of smoke. I felt the heat of his bone under my fingers. Bone. I touched the bare bone of his skull, and it should be disgusting, it should be weird, but my fingers tingled with something like hunger.

Like I wanted to slide them across his face to map out his features in a soft caress.

With a sudden gasp, I pulled back, my hands falling off him. I blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the odd daze that came over me. Phantom stood motionless, his eyes glowing faintly, trained on me.

The book lay on the floor by his foot, and I dove down to snatch it. When I straightened, he was suddenly behind me. He moved so fast, I didn’t get a chance to react.

In the span of a second, my face was pressed into a bookcase, my body sandwiched between it and his front. I made a choked sound, something like a plea, and he pressed me harder into the books, his breath harsh in my ear.

“What are you doing to me, huh? This isn’t normal. I shouldn’t feel… You did something!”

“I didn’t do anything,” I said, my voice a breathy whisper, because my throat closed up.

I felt him everywhere. His hips were flush with my butt, his feet on either side of my feet, his arm pressing down on my nape. Hot shivers trembled down my spine, and I felt weak in a way I hadn’t felt ever before. That weakness was liquid and golden, and it felt like I could finally breathe, even though I choked on my every frantic inhale.

I probably should have screamed for him to let go. But the thing was… I didn’t want to.

“So pink,” he said again, making absolutely no sense.

More shivers tumbled down my back. His voice was a low, masculine rumble, right in my ear and so close, his breath caressed the shell.

“You’re driving me crazy, doll,” he murmured, lower still.

I shivered. “Likewise, you… you total jerk.”

He pressed closer, his hips crushing my ass, and then suddenly, he was gone. My back was cold from his touch, more shivers running through my body. I pressed into the bookcase, desperately trying to catch my breath.

“She’s doing book yoga. Don’t mind her,” Phantom said, his voice sounding almost normal.

I jerked away from the bookcase, just in time to see a scale-covered woman give us a suspicious look before she walked away with a huff.

“Book yoga?” I hissed under my breath, patting down my clothes to make sure they weren’t all rumpled.

Even though my clothes were fine, I felt disheveled and frazzled.

“It was the only thing I could think of,” he said with a shrug, watching me. “You all right?”

I stared at him, incredulous. “No, I am not all right,” I whispered hotly, straining to stay calm. “You assaulted me! What the hell was that? And why…”

I broke off, realizing what I was about to say. Why did I like it?

“Could we just forget it?” Phantom asked, scratching the back of his head. “It was just a glitch. Kind of. I didn’t mean to do it.”

I shook my head, appalled by his audacity.

“No, I can’t forget it!” I hissed, clutching the book to my chest. “How am I supposed to trust you when you… When you keep doing things like this! It’s one thing to make stupid jokes, but this was…”

Intimate. Forceful. Forbidden.

“It was too much,” I finished lamely, looking away. “You… You can’t be my bodyguard anymore.”

I was sure if I kept looking at him, he would read the truth in my face. Oh, how he would joke at my expense if he realized how much he affected me. I would never live it down.

“Oh, well,” he murmured after a taut moment. His body was tense, his hand on his hip, gripping a holster. “You’re forcing me to do something I’ll regret very much, doll. I’d rather do anything but this.”

I looked up, alarmed. He exuded a menacing aura, and when he took a step closer, I stumbled back, a scream of fear building in my throat. God, he was unhinged. He could do anything to me. And if he decided to hurt me, I stood no chance. None. He’d slice me into pieces.

“Please, don’t…”

I broke off when Phantom fell to his knees in front of me, looking up with a comically serious expression.

“I’m sorry. Please, forgive me. I will never do it again.” He frowned, cocking his head to the side, and then grinned. “Unless you ask me to.”

“W-what?”

My heart was in my throat, my entire body locked in a state of the highest emergency, and he… Was he…

“Did you just apologize?” I whispered, staring at his upturned face like it was a bomb. “You… I can’t believe this.”

“Me, neither,” he said, lifting his arms wide in an exaggerated shrug. “It’s my first time, by the way. Please, be gentle with me.”

“Your first time… apologizing.”

At that moment, I wished I was the kind of person who facepalmed themselves, because the situation called for a facepalm. He was down on his knees at my feet, looking at me with a grin that was a bit less unhinged than his usual expression, his eyes glowing softly, and he looked… cute. Like a puppy.

Okay, a murder puppy, but still.

“Yup,” he said, nodding. “You just popped my sorry-cherry.”

I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly. It didn’t help with my urge to laugh and didn’t bring back the anger that I desperately needed. If anything, I wanted to pat Phantom on the head. If he told me the truth and it really was his first time, that deserved encouragement.

“Um… Excuse me?”

Another young woman, probably a student, stood in the aisle entrance, looking at us uncertainly.

“He’s doing book yoga. Don’t mind him,” I said at once.

She laughed uncomfortably and left. I looked at Phantom, who was grinning full-on now.

“See?” he said, still kneeling at my feet. “This is fun. You’re fun.”

“I’m not fun.” I shook my head for emphasis. “I’m dutiful. Predictable. Well-behaved. But not fun.”

“Well then,” he said, getting to his feet. “Maybe I bring out the best in you, eh? So? Are we good?”

I stared at him with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. Did I really want to get rid of him for… For pushing me into a bookcase? He was out of line, yes, but then, he also agreed to keep my outings a secret, and that had to count for something.

Besides, he was right. Unhinged as it sounded… This was fun. And I hadn’t had fun in ages.

“If you do it again, you’re out,” I said, forcing my voice to sound stern.

He nodded, his deep eyes twinkling softly with the movement. “I promise I won’t. Unless you ask for it.”

He laughed under his breath, and I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth to better control my expression as my face grew hot with a blush.

“I’ll never ask for something like this,” I hissed vehemently.

“Good.”

“Good!”

We stared at each other, and I realized I was breathing hard, my blush still hot on my face. After a few more tense seconds, Phantom nodded at the book in my hands.

“So, are you gonna read it or what? Can I read over your shoulder? I’ll be super respectful.”

I sighed and nodded. He picked out a table placed at an intersection of three aisles, claiming it would give us the best chance of escape if we were attacked. The table was tiny, and it barely held the book. As I sat down, Phantom pushed his chair so close, he practically breathed down my neck.

“Do you mind?” I asked, frustrated because my insides tightened with something hot and eager at his proximity. “You’re in my space.”

“Sorry.” With a shameless grin, he pushed his chair a fraction of an inch away. “Better?”

I clenched my jaw and did my best to ignore him. Any further bickering would only delay my most important task for today, which was finding a way to resist mind control. I opened the book on the foreword and leaned in to read. The print was ridiculously small.

Phantom’s chair creaked when he leaned closer, putting his face right next to mine as we both pored over the pages. I ignored the hot tingles crawling up my nape, doing my best not to think about how the air grew thick and hard to breathe.

It went well until about a minute later, when I was still stuck on page one of the incredibly stuffy, unfriendly writing of the book, while Phantom leaned back in his chair, his knee bouncing impatiently.

“Are you done?” he asked ten seconds later.

“No,” I almost growled, trying to push through an incredibly long, convoluted sentence.

“Well, there’s nothing useful in here. You can turn the page.”

“How do you know what’s useful to me?” I asked, marking the end of the sentence with my finger and turning to look at him.

Phantom looked at where I was in the text, his expression pained.

“Oh, boy. You’re not a reader, are you?”

“No. I’m supposed to be pretty and obedient, or did you forget? No reading for an Ashford-Kingsley,” I said bitterly, because I used to like books when I was a girl and my nanny read them to me.

They transported me into different worlds, where the heroines had adventures and got to explore wondrous lands. Meanwhile, I was stuck in an endless loop of school, ballet, manner classes, and photoshoots to show off my father’s perfect family.

Phantom hummed, cocking his head thoughtfully. “Tell you what. If you tell me what it is you need from this book, I’ll let you know which parts are useful to you, okay? Because let’s face it, doll. At your pace, we’ll be stuck here for a few days, at least.”

I sighed heavily, conflicted. I was supposed to do this on my own. It was my huge mission to break free. And yet, he was right, too. I didn’t have any time to waste.

“The mind manipulator… He thought my mind was easy to crack. Like, way easier than others. I want to learn how to get stronger, so I can actually resist him next time.”

“There won’t be a next time. I won’t allow it,” Phantom said at once. “But fine. I’ll pay attention to anything relevant.”

I nodded warily, not fully trusting him, but willing to start. And if he failed me, I could still get the book and read it myself.

“Here,” Phantom said, taking his vampire romance out of his pocket. “You can read this in the meantime. It’s a much easier read, promise. It should suck you right in.”

He chuckled under his breath, and I took the book reluctantly while he sprawled in his chair with the mind manipulation textbook.

After turning the book in my hands for a few minutes, I gave in and cracked it open.